White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general whose own son died in combat, told reporters Thursday that he was “stunned” to hear a Florida congresswoman politicize President Donald Trump’s call to comfort the family of a fallen soldier.
Kelly spoke at the White House press briefing following uproar over Democratic Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson’s attacks against the president. Wilson claimed Trump made an insensitive phone call to the widow of Army Sgt. La David T. Johnson.
“I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning and brokenhearted at what I saw a member of Congress doing,” Kelly said. Rep. Wilson said Trump made Johnson’s widow, Myeshia, cry because he told her that her husband “must have known what he signed up for.”
